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Australia' s Ancient Past

Australia's Ancient Past

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Page 1: Australia's Ancient Past

Australia's Ancient

Past

Page 2: Australia's Ancient Past

There are two types of SOURCES that can be used to investigate Australia’s ancient past:

1.Oral accounts 2.Archaeological evidence.

Page 3: Australia's Ancient Past

Oral accounts of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

peoples

Oral accounts the collected stories that the first Australians used to tell their story and record their customs, rituals and laws. Their oral histories centre on the importance of home, place and country.

 

Page 4: Australia's Ancient Past

For example, Dreamtime stories explain the origins of life and are

passed on from generation to generation 

Page 5: Australia's Ancient Past

Archaeological evidenceBecause there is no written evidence, archaeologists also rely on the remaining archaeological evidence.

Sources of evidence include artefacts such as burial sites and middens, rock engravings and rock paintings and tools and fossils. 

Page 6: Australia's Ancient Past

Middens, such as this one at Boulder Point in Tasmania, are places where people have left the remains of their meals, such as shells and bones. The charcoal remains of fireplaces and artefacts such as tools can also be found at these sites

Page 7: Australia's Ancient Past

Rock engravings at a site on the central coast, north of Sydney. This engraving depicts fish, an eel and a shield

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History MysteryLake Mungo

Page 9: Australia's Ancient Past

History Mystery - Lake Mungo  In 1969 archaeologists unearthed the skeleton of an ancient person in the sand dunes of the desert-like Lake Mungo in south-western NSW. The skeleton had been burned, crushed and then burned again before being buried in a shallow grave near the fire. Five years later they uncovered a complete skeleton, again of an ancient person. It had been laid out very carefully, and buried very formally. It is believed that Mungo Man is the world’s oldest ritualistic burial.

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Mungo Lady and Mungo Man are perhaps the most important human remains ever found in

Australia.

Their discovery re-wrote the ancient story of this land and its

people and sent shock-waves around the world

Page 12: Australia's Ancient Past

What QUESTIONS would a historian ask &

What CLUES would a historian look for to answer:

 1.How old are the Lake Mungo people? 2.Why were Mungo Lady and Mungo Man buried in these ways?3.What was their life like?

     

Thinking like a detective